How to Get More Latinos to Vote? CA’s Online Voter Registration

Latinos and Latinas under the age of 35 benefitted the most from California’s online voter registration during the 2012 election cycle, according to a new study from the Center for Latino Policy Research at the University of California at Berkeley.

Latinos and Latinas were the most likely to register online of any group, according to the study. This is a topic we’ve explored previously on Más Wired, mostly in speculativeform, but this study gives credence to the idea that Latinos’ online behavior in other areas (social media, video consumption, smartphone use, etc.) may contribute to their likeliness of registering to vote online.

Authors Lisa García Bedolla and Verónica N. Vélez also found that, among Latino and Asian online registrants in California, there was a strong tendency towards Democratic party affiliation. Latinas were more likely to register online than Latinos, to the tune of 55%.

Online voter registration in California not only brought more Latinos into the fold, according to the authors, but brought in voters who wouldn’t have normally registered:

“Given voters in California are, on average, significantly more affluent than the general population, this study suggests that online voter registration opened up the registration and voting process to a wider range of voters in terms of their socioeconomic status.”

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